From Krakow to Krypton

Jews created the first comic book, the first graphic novel, the first comic book convention, the first comic book specialty store, and they helped create the underground comics (or "Comix") movement of the late '60s and early '70s. Many of the creators of the most famous comic books, such as "Superman", "Spiderman", "X-Men", and "Batman", as well as the founders of "MAD Magazine", were Jewish. This book tells their stories, and demonstrates how they brought a uniquely Jewish perspective to their work and to the comics industry as a whole.Presented in full color, with sidebars and text boxes presented like cartoon bubbles, "From Krakow to Krypton" is filled with graphics from the many comics that Jews had an important part in creating, as well as original design sketches and photographs. Thus, the book offers both a visually stunning and fun approach to the history of Jews in the comic book industry.

Author Biography:
Arie Kaplan author of Masters of the Comic Book Universe Revealed! (Chicago Review Press, 2006). He is a writer for MAD Magazine and has also written for Entertainment Weekly, Teen Beat, Tiger Beat, Bop, The Utne Reader, Time Out New York, and MTV's Total Request Live. In addition, he has written scripts for the online animation studio JibJab Media, Inc. (www.jibjab.com), and he was head writer of the sketch comedy troupe The Famous Corporation. As a cartoonist, Arie's one-panel cartoons, comic strips, and caricatures have appeared in The Fortean Times, Snicker Magazine, The Hartford Advocate, and The Door Magazine. In 2001-2002, he authored the three-part series on Jews in comedy, "Wizards of Wit," and recently wrote the critically acclaimed three-part magazine series "Kings of Comics: How Jews Created The Comic Book Industry," both published in Reform Judaism.

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